Fabrication of data, plagiarism, theft, retraction, image duplication, destruction of property, and death. These are the results from the Top Science Scandals of 2011, as determined by The Scientist magazine. (Thanks to Dave Topping for pointing this out.)

In writing my book and questioning the “standard” approach that people have used to give scientific presentations, I have often wondered if people stick to convention because that’s all they’ve seen. They see an outline slide or a meaningless “thank you!” slide and think, “Yeah, that’s the way to do it right.” The question is […]

My friend Jim Steenburgh over at Wasatch Weather Weenies alerted me to this column in the Guardian newspaper. The column points out something that we scientists may know but forget from time to time: factors other than the quality of the science determine whether and how often our articles get cited by others. Among the […]

I have not found a more concise and clear statement about how to choose a good scientific problem for someone at various stages in their career. Enjoy! Alon, U., 2009: How to choose a good scientific problem. Molecular Cell, 35, 726-728. DOI: 10.1016/j.molcel.2009.09.013. [PDF]

The first personal computer I used was a Mac. I could probably count the number of PC keyboards I’ve ever touched on all my fingers and toes. I’m not a fanboy, but you gotta respect him for what he’s done in his all-too-short life. Two essential items for today: • One thing we owe to […]

Cracked.com (America’s only humor site since 1958) always has great reads. Today’s entry was no exception. The 6 Habits of Highly Annoying Public Speakers As an example, Number 6 is “Blaming the Audience for a Lack of Enthusiasm”, illustrated above. The most annoying thing, beyond being nagged to do something you don’t really want to […]

Roger Pielke Jr. reports on a Wall Street Journal article on the number of retractions published in scientific journals. The top three journals in the number of retractions (1900 to 2010)? 1. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (57 retractions) 2. Science (54 retractions) 3. Nature (43 retractions) Graphic here by N. Saunders. Think […]

I am honored to have seen page proofs of Gary Lackmann’s new book Midlatitude Synoptic Meteorology: Dynamics, Analysis, and Forecasting to be published later this year by the American Meteorological Society. For this book, Gary goes back to the original meaning of the word synoptic (“forming a summary or synopsis”). Twelve chapters summarize and synthesize […]